Shankar- a stated that God has no attributes (Nirguna). Ramanuja said that God has all the good attributes (Saguna and Kalyanagunavishishta). Both these statements look contradicting each other. But, if you analyse carefully, both the statements are one and the same.

The relationship or association of even a rigid quality with God is always external like the yellow thread of a married lady. The yellow thread is only externally associated and can be separable very easily. But, the yellow thread is never separated from the married lady. The association of two items is either external or internal, which may be separable or inseparable. The yellow thread and married lady stand for the external and inseparable association. The association is inseparable since the yellow thread is never separated from the married lady. Hence, this is external-inseparable-associati- on (Bahya Samavaaya Sambandha).

When you put sugar in water, it dissolves and goes into the water and becomes inseparable (not easily separable). This is internal-inseparable-associati- on (Antara Samavaaya Sambandha). Therefore, the inseparable association (Samavaaya Sambandha) can be external as well as internal. The other type of association is separable association (Samyoga Sambandha) for which the association of a bird with the tree is an example. The bird is associated with the tree, but frequently separated. Now, the association of the awareness with a quality can be either external-inseparable-associati- on or mere separable-association. The association of awareness and quality is never the internal-inseparable-associati- on. The word Nirguna means that either God or awareness (individual soul) does not have internal-inseparable-associati- on with the quality.

Some qualities are dissociated frequently from the awareness or the individual soul, which come under separable association. Some qualities are very rigid, but, still come under the external inseparable association only but not under the internal-inseparable-associati- on. This means that the individual soul will easily dissociate from some qualities and will separate from some rigid qualities on hectic efforts. But no quality is internal and inseparable if you go to the finest level of its state. Even though, the yellow thread is inseparable from the married lady, one can easily cut it using some force. But removal of dissolved sugar from water is almost impossible or possible by very tedious procedure like evaporation. The water vapour that escaped from the disc on evaporation can be condensed into water by very hectic task only. However, this type of association never exists between the individual soul and quality.

The word Nirguna means that the quality never entered the individual soul and hence you can state that the soul does not possess the quality (Nirgunohyaatmaa – Veda). In the gold ornament, the shape of the ornament is also associated with the gold through external-inseparable-associati- on only. The shape of the ornament did not enter the atoms of gold. For that matter, even the molecules of sugar did not enter the molecules of water on dissolution. Both the molecules of water and sugar exist side by side only. Therefore, on deep analysis, you can conclude that even in internal-inseparable-associati- on, the entry is limited to certain extent only and not in the state of very intensive view. However, you can take the sugar solution as an example for internal inseparable relationship since the crystals of sugar are broken into molecules and mix with water molecules at a finer level. From the point of the crystalline state of sugar, we can say that the sugar has gone into the water. But, at the finest level of atoms, still the sugar has not gone into the water.

With respect to the yellow thread of the married lady, we can say that sugar has gone into water since, the yellow thread did not enter the inside area of the neck. The difference comes only in relative sense. But in the absolute sense, what Shankara said is true since the quality is only associated with individual soul externally only and not internally at the finest level. Hence, the word Nirguna means that the quality may be associated with the individual soul in inseparable way, but it is never internal at the finest level. Hence, at the finest level, we should say that a quality is associated externally only. This means that the quality did not enter the individual soul at the highest level. The external association of the quality is agreed, but, due to lack of internal entry, the individual soul is said to exist separately from the area of the quality.

Ramanuja also said that the individual soul is Saguna, which also means that the individual soul is associated with the quality and it does not mean that the quality entered the individual soul at the finest level. Here, the individual soul is used in the sense of the basic material or nervous energy (Gunebhyashcha param vetti– Gita) and not in the usual sense of a bundle of qualities.

When this is the fate of the quality in the case of individual soul, where both the quality and individual soul are imaginable items, we can never say that the imaginable quality can enter the unimaginable God. The association of a quality with God is possible like the case of individual soul. Even in the case of individual soul, a quality is always externally associated and hence gets dissociated after some time.

This means that the individual soul is associated with a quality like happiness for some time and the same individual soul after some time gets rid of the quality of happiness and is associated with another quality like anger. The association and dissociation of various qualities from the individual soul proves that the quality is always associated externally and never enters the unimaginable domain or God. By this, you can get rid of the doubt that the imaginable item enters the unimaginable God.

Boredom is also such quality associated externally, which gets dissociated when another quality called entertainment is associated. The association and dissociation of qualities may be difficult in the case of an individual soul because of common nature of energy that exists in both the soul and quality. But, in the case of unimaginable God, there is no such common nature and hence the association and dissociation of quality is very easy and highly superficial.